NICARAGUA: ARMS SOURCE FOR GUERRILLAS OR NOT?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00338R000200190009-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 28, 2008
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: June 16, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/08/28: CIA-RDP86B00338R000200190009-3
Foreign Policy - 3
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Nicaragua: Arms Source for Guerrillas, or,,Not?
A former CIA analyst has chal- in'large part, on the claim that El Committee as "proof" off' Nicara
lenged one of the basic tenets of the Salvador is being subverted by left- guan gun-running. That report (H
Reagan administration's Central ~.iat guerrillas who. -obtain .arms, Rapt 98-122, Part 1) accompanied a
America policy: that Nicaragua training and other support from committee bill (HR 9760) that nev-
continues to supply massive Nicaragua In turn, Nicaragua gets ertheleits would have ' cut off the
amounts of arms to guerrillas bat- the arms from Cuba and the Soviet CIA's aid for the contras in Nicara-
tling the government of El Salva- Union, administration officials say. gua. (1983 Almanac. p. 123)'
dor. In his May 9 nationally televised At that time, the report said,
David C. MacMichael, a CIA "the committee believes that the
contract employee from 1981-83, intelligence available ?to it contin-
charged in a press release snd a Reagan's campaign ues to support" several Judgments
series of interviews that the admin- about Nicaraguan support for the
istration has been unable since against the Nicaraguan guerrillas "with certainty." One
1981 to produce specific informa- government is based judgment was that "a major por-
tion backing the claim of Nicara- largely on the claim that tion of the arms and other material
guan gun-running to El Salvador. sent by Cuba and other communist
The administration, Mac- El Salvador 98 being sub- countries to the Salvadoran insur-
Michael told The New York Times, verted by leftist guerril- gents transits Nicaragua with the
has "systematically misrepresented la8 with Nicaraguan permission and assistance of the
Nicaraguan involvement in the Sandinistas," who run Nicaragua.
supply of arms to Salvadoran guer- support. The administration's refusal to
rillas." In so doing, he said, the ad- disclose specific information about
ministration is attempting to jus- speech on Central America, Reagan Nicaraguan arms shipments stands
tify its support for the "contras" referred to the Nicaraguans as "Cu- in contrast to its willingness to re-
who are trying to overthrow the ba's Cubans." veal similar information about So-
leftist Nicaraguan regime. (Contra Secretary of State George P. viet arms shipments to Cuba.
aid, p. 1469) Shultz, CIA Director William J. A "fact sheet" released by the
The CIA did not renew Casey and Under Secretary of De- White House to bolster Reagan's
MacMichael's contract when it ex- fense Fred C. Ikle disputed Mac- May 9 speech included a chart
pired in March 1983. He has said Michael's charge. Each official said showing "Soviet Military Deliveries
he was told he did not fit in; the the administration had proof of the to Cuba" in thousands of tons for
agency declined to discuss details gun-running, but could not reveal each year from 1962-82. According
of his employment. Later that year details because doing so would to the chart, such shipments ex-
and early this year, MacMichael jeopardize intelligence-gathering ceeded 250,000 tons at the time of
traveled to Nicaragua and partici- sources and methods. the Cuban missile crisis in 1962,
pated in a demonstration, at the Shultz, meeting with reporters leveled off at 10,000 to 20,000 tons
U.S. Embassy in Managua, by U.S. on June 12, reportedly expressed annually for most of the 1960s and
citizens who oppose President Rea- surprise that the gun-running issue 1970s, and surged to about 70,000
gan's policies in Central America. was open to question. "The evi- tons annually in the 1980s. The
Senior administration officials dence is everywhere," he said. chart cited no source for the data.
disputed MacMichael's charges, Ikle, under secretary of de- The "fact sheet" also said the
but declined, as they have for fense for policy, said on June 13 Soviet bloc had delivered $350 mil-
nearly three years, to disclose spe- that the administration has "pho- lion worth of military supplies to
cific details about arms shipments tographs, documents, speeches" to Nicaragua from 1980-84; it did not
from Nicaragua to El Salvador. back up its statements. say how much of that, if any, had
Reagan's campaign against the Ikle pointed to a May 1983 re- been passed on to the Salvadoran
Nicaraguan government is based, port of the House Intelligence guerrillas.
In implementing that provision,
the committee said, the president
must not allow into the United States
more diplomats from the Soviet Union
and its allies than the number of U.S.
diplomats those countries will admit.
The provision did not, require the
IS
president to expel or refuse to admit
only Soviet diplomats suspected of
intelligence activity. However, Hud-
dleston and Leahy have said that re-
ducing the overall number of Soviet
diplomats in the United States would
force the Soviet Union to cut back the
number of its intelligence agents.
Because of existing diplomatic
agreements and other considerations,
reaching equality in the size of diplo-
matic staffs will have to be accom-
plished "over a period of time," the
committee said. But the panel de-
manded annual reports from the pres-
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